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Net Neutrality Regulation Still a Bad Idea

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The debate at today’s House Committee on Energy and Commerce hearing was largely between making blocking, throttling, and fast lanes illegal and going further to also place the Internet under heavy-handed Title II authority.

CEI has long argued that just because the potentially pro-competitive or even pro-consumer possibilities of blocking, throttling, or fast lanes isn’t immediately apparent to today’s politicians doesn’t mean that Internet infrastructure owners should be denied their right to use and manage their property as they see fit.

But the push to reclassify the Internet under Title II, so that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) can regulate whatever innovation develops in the future with a free hand, goes to the heart of the question of who should be in charge of the evolution of the Internet.

Should it be the entrepreneurs, engineers, and investors who have deployed one the most successful and transformative technologies the world has ever known, as has been the case for the majority of the life of the Internet? It would seem the obvious answer.

For those who would instead pick the politicians, lawyers, and bureaucrats at the FCC, we have some recommended reading on the abysmal track record for innovation, objectivity, and technological expertise at the FCC. We challenge advocates of net neutrality regulation to read it and not think twice about their policy position.